Should You Have a Digital Marketing Plan?

Digital marketing is any marketing effort that takes place online. There are a number of different digital channels to use, such as social media, email, websites outside of your own domain, and search engines. With all of these options, should you have a digital marketing plan? The short answer is yes, you absolutely should. The long answer, absolutely yes. You should have a digital marketing plan, and if you don’t, go devise one right now. Overall, 85% of Americans say they go online on a daily basis. Of that 85%, 31% say they are online almost constantly. As online becomes a larger part of our lives every day, digital marketing can help you reach a large online audience and target prospects who will most likely buy your product or service. We’re going to break down digital marketing and really take a look at why it’s important and what the benefits are.

Magazine, TV, radio, or billboard ads are a huge part of traditional marketing efforts. However, using these methods, you don’t have control over who sees the ad. Meaning if your ad is in the wrong place at the wrong time, your target audience isn’t going to see it, and measuring ROI is harder through those channels than it is with digital marketing. Not to mention you’re limited to the parameters of ad space, especially with billboards. Our COO, and Co-Founder, Larissa LaMaster, said, “Digital marketing allows companies to have more fun with their content since they are not restricted in terms of physical space.” Digital marketing also gives you the ability to target a specific demographic, area, age group, or people with the same interests. You can be very strategic with where you place your digital marketing efforts. “Digital marketing gives the opportunity to market to a specific person in a way that was simply not possible 20 years ago,” says LaMaster. Your digital efforts can, in turn, help your regular marketing efforts as well. You can conduct research to identify your buyer persona and refine your strategy to guarantee you’re reaching the right audience.

We’ll give you a quick rundown of the most common digital marketing channels and how to use them.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- Using keywords, phrases, and other SEO techniques, this is the process of ensuring your website will “rank” higher in search engine results. The better your SEO is, the sooner you will show up when someone does a broad search for what you offer.
  

• Content marketing is the assets created to promote brand awareness, generate leads, traffic growth, and attract customers. These assets can be blogs, infographics, ebooks and whitepapers, videos, and more.
  

• Social Media Marketing- One of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business, drive traffic, and generate leads. There are so many social media channels, but you need to determine which ones are best suited for your brand.
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Twitter

Make sure you have a good scheduling platform to post all of your content. Automating your social media efforts is a huge time saver. You can check out this blog about how to automate your marketing efforts.

• Pay Per Click (PPC) ads are a great way to drive traffic to your website or a specific landing page. Google ads are the most common type of PPC ad. It allows you to pay for the top spot on Google’s search results page, but at a price “per click” of your links placed. You can also pay for ads on social media. If you don’t have a good ad strategy and budget in place, this could be a very costly avenue to go down. Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want your outcome to be with your PPC ads, and you comb through the insights and results regularly to make sure your ads a performing the way you want them to.
  

• Email campaign- This is one of the best and easiest ways to communicate with your audience. Email is a great way to promote content, sales, and events and direct people to your website. This form of digital marketing also works nicely with social media. It’s a great way to grow your audience and increase your companies reach.
  

What are the benefits of digital marketing? Other than reaching an audience that is growing every day, digital marketing gives you a platform to interact and engage with your current and potential customers. LaMaster says, “Digital marketing can be used as an effective way to build relationships with customers/clients and to engage with them regularly.” She is 100% right. When someone sees your commercial, billboard, or reads your ad, once they’re done, it’s over. You have no way of re-engaging them. With digital marketing, your content is always there and can be reshared, repurposed, and it gives you a way to start conversations with your audience. You can also get a better understanding of how your content is performing. With most digital efforts, you have access to insights showing reach, engagement, and other metrics of your content. Having a strong digital marketing presence is so crucial in today’s digital world. It’s easy to get started, so what are you waiting for? If you need help with your digital marketing efforts, Boundless Media is here to help with content creation, social media management, and lead generation!